The Great State of North Carolina Has Gone Completely Insane

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states, where the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where you do what you must do, and you do it well.

Our tour will not range far and wide this week. For example, we will not even bother to go down to Alabama to study what in the hell is going on with the governor down there, except to note that, not long ago, he signed a bill to keep the cities in his state from raising the minimum wage. And so, perhaps, the more he's distracted from his official duties, the better. No, we will spend most of our time on this week's ramble in the now relentlessly insane state of North Carolina. Thanks largely to the efforts of a local Koch named Art Pope, and also thanks to an electorate that damned well should have known better, North Carolina is governed by a useful tool named Pat McCrory and by a legislature full of irredeemable gossoons. On Wednesday night, they surpassed even themselves.

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Instead, legislators returned to the state house to overrule a local ordinance in Charlotte banning discrimination against LGBT people. A bill written for that purpose passed Wednesday evening and was signed by Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican. In the House, every Republican and 11 Democrats backed the bill. In the Senate, Democrats walked out when a vote was called, resulting in a 32-0 passage by Republicans. The law not only overturns Charlotte's ban: It also prevents any local governments from passing their own non-discrimination ordinances, mandates that students in the state's schools use bathrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate, and prevents cities from enacting minimum wages higher than the state's.

I give the city fathers of Charlotte credit for waving this red flag in front of the bullshit. How many ways does this reveal every last tenet of what is alleged to be conservative political philosophy to be a sham of a mockery of a farce?

Let us count the ways.

Conservative political philosophy insists that the best government is that government closest to the people—unless, of course, it's a city that somehow offends the Bible-banging crackers in the state house. (You will note, by the way, that Charlotte's minimum wage increase also goes out as part of this deal. Arizona is up to the same mischief, too.) Down with local control! We must keep pure the lavatories of democracy!

Not only does it prevent local governments from writing ordinances that allow people to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender with with they identify, it also preempts cities from passing their own nondiscrimination standards, saying the state's rules—which are more conservative—supersede localities. Local school district would be barred from allowing transgender students to use bathrooms or locker rooms that don't correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificate.

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The North Carolina legislature called itself into a special session in order to pass this nonsense. Only 25 percent of the voters polled support the action. Just calling the special session cost the taxpayers of North Carolina $42,000. And that's not even including the costs of the inevitable federal lawsuits that will ensue, and that the state is likely to lose. And that's not even including the cost to the state's tourism revenues. (The NBA is already getting pressure to move next year's All Star festivities out of Charlotte.) If they need an object lesson, they can look a few degrees south to Georgia, where a "religious liberty" bill is awaiting a decision from Governor Nathan Deal, who is having a serious case of agita over whether to sign the thing, largely because he sees many dollar bills on the wing if he does.

The Walt Disney Co. and its subsidiary movie studio, Marvel, said in a statement Wednesday that they would stop all film production in the state should the Free Exercise Protection Act, which opponents describe as anti-gay, becomes law. "Disney and Marvel are inclusive companies, and although we have had great experiences filming in Georgia, we will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law," the Disney Co. said in a statement. They were joined Thursday by Time Warner, which is the corporate parent of Atlanta-based CNN, a number of cable networks, Warner Bros. and HBO.

Georgia's powerful corporate community and companies including Microsoft, Google, Coca-Cola and Home Depot, have opposed the bill and have said the state would see a crippling economic impact from such a bill becoming law, under threats of boycotts from both business convention organizers and national LGBT advocates. Studies by the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau have suggested a negative economic impact of $1 billion to $2 billion if national groups begin boycotting Georgia or canceling conventions and events based on perceived discriminatory efforts by the state.

North Carolina, you're next.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where Official Blog Rawhide Chewer Friedman of the Plains, currently wrangling dogies in the Bahamas, sends us the saga of how state attorney-general Scott Pruitt has found himself up to the hips in trouble and in pig manure.

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said lawmakers introduced House Bill 2250 as a means to cripple his organization's ability to raise money to fight the measure it says could lead to pollution and inhumane treatment of animals. "You couldn't regulate the manure discharge from a factory farm that pollutes a stream, destroys fish and fishing opportunities," Pacelle said.